Local councils have too often allowed "failure and mediocrity'' to
continue in schools, David Laws said yesterday.

Local councils have too often allowed "failure and mediocrity'' to continue in schools, David Laws said yesterday.

In a stinging attack, the schools minister accused local authorities of championing only those schools under their control.

He also admitted that the Department for Education did not have the resources to intervene in every school that needed help.

Addressing a Local Government Association (LGA) conference in central London, Mr Laws said that if councils wanted to keep their role in the school system, they "must act when schools in their areas need to improve''.

"Too often in the past, local authorities have failed to act to deal with not only failure itself, but also mediocrity in schools,'' he said, adding: "Too many local authorities have felt that it is their job to champion 'their' schools, regardless of whether these schools are delivering for their children in their area."

Last week Ofsted warned that more than two million children were still receiving a sub–standard education, with many facing a postcode lottery to attend a decent school.

David Laws returned to Government as Education Minister following the September reshuffle, with a roving brief to advise on Coalition policy across Government, two years after he stood down as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after just 17 days.